HP almost bought a $9.3 billion company before walking away from the deal

HP CEO Meg WhitmanHP
HP was in talks to acquire Computer Sciences, an IT consulting company worth $9.3 billion, last month, before deciding to walk away from the deal, according to a report by Bloomberg.

The deal would have been HP's biggest since its $10.3 billion Autonomy acquisition in 2011.

The report didn't say what exactly prompted the two companies to break the deal, nor why HP was interested in acquiring Computer Sciences.

With years of declining revenue and rising competition from new cloud vendors, HP has been trying to buy its way out of its slowing business. Between 2001 and 2011, when Meg Whitman took the helm, HP spent almost $66 billion in acquisitions.

But not all have been good. Most notably, HP had to write off nearly $8.8 billion from the $9.3 billion Autonomy deal earlier this year. It filed a $5.1 billion lawsuit against Autonomy in March.

In March, HP also acquired a networking company Aruba for $2.7 billion. But it remains to be seen how that deal will help HP's growth.

But Whitman has also indicated that she's not afraid to make more acquisitions, if she thinks the company's worth buying. In a Bloomberg interview this week, she hinted at more deals, saying, "I will say if you find a company that's completely disruptive and has a chance to take big share from an incumbent, those valuations might be worth it."

HP is in a company in a massive transition. Last year, it announced that it would split into two entities: one focused on enterprise sales, and another comprised of its core PC and printer businesses. Computer Sciences, likewise, revealed plans to break itself into two businesses this month, each focused on commercial and government clients.